Elektra 2005 – Component of the Year Award

OxiCap® Capacitor Wins “Component of the Year” Award; First New Capacitor Dielectric in Forty Years

AVX’s niobium oxide capacitor, (OxiCap®) was voted component of the year at the Elektra 05 European Industry awards in London last week. The judges commented: “This year’s winning component successfully addressed specific environmental issues within the industry without compromising on performance. The device fulfilled innovative design, time-to-market, meeting a customer need, and overall commercial success criteria.”

The award was received by Peter Collis, who commented: “We were up against some heavy competition, proving that this product really is a milestone in capacitor development. New legislation will force customers to think again about their current suppliers, and will inevitably lead them to a compliant, high-performance product such as OxiCap®.”

The niobium oxide-based system is lead and halogen-free, environmentally friendly, and provides a high level of safety and security due to self-healing and self-arresting mechanisms. The parts offer an MTBF in the range of 200,000 to 500,000 hours, performing 100 times better than aluminium electrolyte capacitors. They do not suffer from the Dry Out condition. Furthermore, OxiCap® capacitors withstand a 3x reflow profile up to 260°C, complying with JEDEC 020C lead-free requirements. Such performance enables mass production of advanced PCBs including rework.

The devices are RoHS-compliant and offer a reliable alternative to aluminium electrolytics. OxiCap® is ideal for consumer, automotive entertainment, high volume cellular and computer applications.

Niobium Oxide Capacitors are manufactured and sold under patent license from Cabot Corporation, Boyertown, Pennsylvania U.S.A.